The Class A Tourney returned to
Whiting Field House with even deeper merchant support and produced a successful
attendance figure though the economy was in a deep depression. Washburn
University "W Club" members served as hosts for the visiting high
school teams. They escorted teams from the rail station to their hotels and from
there to the field house. Merchant purchased tickets were provided to area high
school players whose teams did not qualify for the tourney. 1

A major technological improvement in the
game was introduced in the form of an electrically run scoreboard. The Topeka
Daily Capital marveled at the features of the board that were controlled at
the officials table. "An electrically driven clock ... at the end of
playing time starts a loud blast on an automobile horn attached to the top of
the board." 2

One Class B team qualified for the Topeka tourney because they had
the option to compete at the Class A regional in Norton. Quinter had previously
finished second at the Class B district at Hoxie. The problem was that Class B
was won by the mighty Class B power Menlo. 3 Rather than compete against Menlo in
a Class B Regional, they took their chances with an open spot in the Class A
ranks. They won that tournament and made the trip to Topeka and managed to win
the consolation bracket. The boys and the town celebrated that trophy as if it
were a state championship. 4

Newton won the Class A tournament and
finished the season undefeated. The Railroaders methodically progressed through
the tourney as most of the experts around the state had predicted with returning
stars Edwards, Royer and Tourtillot leading the way. 5 Newton's only scare
came from Lindsborg in the semi-final game. Newton was in control for most of the
game and would not allow any close in shots. Lindsborg finally began to connect
with some long range throws and were able to gain a 12-12 tie in the 4th
quarter. That is when John Edwards calmly took control and put Newton ahead with
seconds left to secure the win. 6

There appeared to be hard feelings left
over between the Topeka crowd and the Newton team from the roughly played
semi-final of 1930. C.E. Hobbs of the Topeka State Journal wrote that he saw
signals passed from the Newton bench to the players on the court indicating
which plays to run. He implied that Coach Lindley was guilty of violating the
rule against coaching from the bench at any time. The Newton Evening-Republican
sports department replied, "Anyone who is acquainted with Mr. Lindley,
knows that he will sit thru an entire game, scarcely showing any signs of
emotion, let alone any signs which a player might interpret as signals for
certain plays. " 7

Paul Lawrence of the Newton paper
described the Newton offense as "cool, deliberate, systematic
basketball under all conditions. " The coaching was all done before the
game ever started or, many times, at halftime. Newton's best offense occurred
frequently in the third quarter after the coaches could "analyze the
defects and weak places in the opponents play... and at the same time, correct
their own faults." 8 Gene Kemper of the Emporia Gazette saw the
champs as "the best of all teams ever produced by Frank Lindley and Birch
Stuart. The team is well balanced with three smart veterans, Brown, Edwards and
Tourtillott, as a backbone. Brown is a sharpshooter and a sparkplug. Tourtillot
is the pivotal man on offense, and Edwards directs the offense ... using a
clever and deceptive passing ability." 9

The association held a separate
Class B tourney in 1931 after a two year absence. Hays State College was
designated as the host for the event played at the Sheridan Coliseum. Paul
"Busch" Gross served as tournament director. 10

Pete Duerksen with great help from
Art Ediger and Henry Dyck drove Buhler to the championship win over Northwest
Kansas power Menlo. Buhler used a slow down game that most Class B teams rarely
encountered. Menlo could only compete by playing a zone. When they switched to a
man defense in an attempt to close the gap, Buhler picked them apart for easy
scores. 11

The Osage City cagers drew
attention from the Hays press as they picked up on the story of the
"All-American" or as others called "the Five Nations Team."
The Topeka Daily Capital explained the description. "Anderson is of Swedish
descent, the other forward (Stromgren) is of Norwegian extraction; Orendorf is a
Negro: Romande and Parre, guards, are of Italian and French parentage,
respectively." 12
Osage City had an unusual, for that time, mixture of population due to the many
immigrants who were working in the town's coal mining industry that was still
active in the 1930s. 13

Carl Orendorf, as nearly as can be
determined, was the first African-American player to compete in a Class B state
tournament. Writers commonly used descriptive terms such as "dusky" or
"colored" to describe the Negro athlete in high school games. There
were very few areas of the state that allowed black basketball players on the
varsity roster. Stu Dunbar of the Salina Journal reported that Orendorf was the
only colored boy in the tournament. Dunbar described him as "an easy
playing, gum-chewing, never-smiling negro. Orendorf managed his team
beautifully, playing with a slow grace and accuracy which was almost aggravating
in its finesse." 14

RULE CHANGE: A free throw
shooting contest was mandated for teams still tied after one overtime period.
See year 1933 for description of this overtime rule. E. A. Thomas installed this
measure as a partial answer to complaints of physical exhaustion in tournament
play.15

Wichita
began a pitch for the 1932 Class A tourney soon after the conclusion of the 1931
event. Civic leaders were proud of the Wichita Forum that drew big crowds for
sporting events like AAU basketball. The Forum was home to AAU champ the Wichita Henrys. That was
the venue the KSHSAA thought they would have when the tourney was planned, but a
late breaking scheduling conflict forced the directors of the tourney to find
another site. They decided that the recently constructed Wichita North gym could
hold as many as 3,000 with the addition of floor seating. The new gym actually
had better locker room facilities than the old Forum (located where the Century
II complex now stands.) This marked the first time that the tournament was held
in an exclusively high school gymnasium. 1

It was the rule in this era that the winner of a
Class A or Class B Regional automatically qualified for the state tournament.
The association would then pick the best teams from the various runner-up clubs
to fill out the sixteen team bracket. The association invited Wichita East who
lost a semi-final game in their regional. Winfield, a perennial tournament
participant, did finish second in their regional at Arkansas City - but they
were left out of the Wichita event. Other teams - El Dorado and McPherson - also
objected to the Wichita East pick by claiming more important regular season
records. The uproar over this pick caused discussion about an alternative or
"rump tournament" for the schools left out. 2
The possibility of a schism in the association was avoided when Supt. Evan
Evans, a respected official from Winfield, shot down this idea. He would file an
official protest with the KSHSAA over the selection process that, in several
school's opinion, favored the choice of Wichita East to pump attendance in the
opening round. 3

Newton was
favored as usual to win the title and came into the event as Ark Valley champ
with only one loss. A classic upset opportunity arose when Wichita East faced
off against the favorites in the quarter-finals. The Wichita boys delivered the
shocker of the era when they defeated Newton 34-16. All the drama about East's
inclusion in the tournament and the large margin of victory over Newton had all the fans buzzing. The Newton team
experienced an extremely rare meltdown that saw one of their stars nearly
tackling an East player late in the game. Wichita North, the other city team,
may have been helped by the home court with their impressive upset over the
other tournament favorite KC-Wyandotte. 4

These
upsets cleared the way for E. B. Weaver's Topeka Trojans to glide through to the
finals and meet another dark horse team in Parsons. The Trojans were described
as a "well-oiled machine" with two outstanding defensive players in
Joe Fee and Ralph LaCroix. Fee was the leading scorer for the team that needed
little offense to win in 1932. 5

Class B
competition took place at Wilson Gym on the campus of Sterling College in
Sterling. Sterling was the smallest town to ever handle a state tournament. Only
brief descriptions of the games exist. 6
Pete Duerksen was the MVP for Buhler who repeated as champion. He scored 12 of
Buhler's point total in the final against Cullison. 7

Topeka High's new high school building opened in 1932 and the school's gymnasium
became the best high school facility in the state the day it opened. The
arena was unlike any other in Kansas with a published seating capacity of 3,000.
1 Actual attendance for some games ranged from 4,000 to 5,000 with additional
seating that was used over the years. 2
The gym hosted the top class event thirteen times between 1933 and 1950. 3

The favorites in
1933 were the two undefeated entries KC-Wyandotte and Arkansas City. For the
first time since 1919, Newton did not qualify or receive an invitation as
Wichita North eliminated the Lindley boys in a regional semi-final. 4

Defending champion Topeka High engaged St. Joseph's of Hays in a quarter-final
game that resulted in a 15-15 tie at the end of regulation. An overtime period
was played with another tie result. The 1931 rule change came into play for the
second overtime as the team Captains lined up the players on the court in order
for a free throw shooting contest. Each of the five players for the two teams
would alternate at the free throw line and the highest team total in the round
decided the winner. Four players for Topeka and St. Joseph's matched each
other with hits and misses at the line. The fifth man up for Topeka High sank
his free throw with a roar of approval from the Topeka High crowd - the Jacobs
try from the line for the Hays Catholics rolled off the rim and gave the Trojans
a victory. 5

Another black player made an appearance at the Class A tourney from Salina.
Cecil Scroggins was a starter for the Maroons and the Topeka Daily Capital noted
that Scroggins "played good and clean basket ball throughout" in the
two games played by the team from the CKL.
6 The color line was
breaking in areas of the state where few black athletes were enrolled. Salina,
Hutchinson and Abilene all brought black athletes on to their varsity rosters.
In other larger cities there existed enough population that separate basketball
teams were established for the "colored" boys. This was the case at
Topeka High, Atchison, Leavenworth and others. 7 The Kansas City school system's
high schools were segregated. KC-Wyandotte was an all-white school and KC-Sumner
was the all-black counterpart. 8

Coach Percy Parks Wyandotte players were in top form as they entered the
semi-final against tournament host Topeka High. The Trojans were missing their
best player - Don Dittemore - due to a late season injury. Still, they showed a
lot of fight and their win over Hays-St. Joseph was considered a minor upset
because of Dittemore's absence. 9 Near the end of the game, Wyandotte's
star player Joe Michaels fouled Topeka's Lynn and suffered an injury. Topeka was
down two points and confusion over the time-out called by Wyandotte gave Topeka
an extra free throw. Topeka hit both free throws to tie the game and caused an
overtime period. But Michaels came back strong in the extra period with two
goals to settle the issue and move on to play Arkansas City in the finals. 10

Wyandotte
Principal J. F. Wellemeyer gave credit to the Kansas City pep band for their
playing of the school song - "The Glory of Wyandotte" - during the
time-out before the overtime period. Wellemeyer said the gym became as
"quiet as a church" during the playing of the anthem and the thrill of
school spirit gripped the Wyandotte players and fans and helped the team move
on. 11

Wyandotte
won their third championship in convincing fashion. Coach Parks was praised for
his second title, but the Kansas City Kansan referred readers to what Parks said
earlier in the season. " I can't take much credit for having a good team
with these boys," he said. "I would have to try harder to make a poor
team of them." 12

Salina-Sacred Heart
became the first Catholic school to win a state title when they grabbed the
Class B crown at Salina's Memorial Hall. Jimmy Schwartz, later a star for
Colorado University, led the Knights with fifteen points to defeat Buhler in the
final. Coach Anthony Zamrzla's team coasted through the tourney until the
meeting with two time defending champion Buhler. A late rally led by Schwartz
gained the lead with around three minutes left and the Knights played the stall
until Schwartz scored another goal to clinch victory. 13

Wilmore defeated KC-Pembroke (they were located in Johnson County during the
1930s) in triple overtime to win 3rd place. Free throw contests were used in the
second and third overtime. 14 Athens , the township high school without a town,
won the consolation bracket for the southwest corner of Jewell county. 15

RULE CHANGE: 1) Addition of the half court line and a
ten second time period required to advance a ball from the back court to the
front court. This rule also prevented a retreat to the back court by the
offensive team (over and back). 2) No player with the ball may stand in the free
throw lane for more than three seconds. 16

Newton fans were encouraged
by another great Ark valley campaign (11-1) and were confident that they would
at least make the finals and forget the gloom of not even making the tournament
in 1933. Experts predicted that defending champion KC-Wyandotte would meet the
Railroaders in the championship game. 1

Emporia's strong record was
marred by a loss in the regional to Topeka. Fortunately the tournament directors
recognized that the Spartans were only defeated twice during the year and issued
an invitation to the team. 2 Emporia justified the nod by winning in good form
over Norton and Pittsburg. Emporia then surprised Newton with a game that was no
fluke. Petty, Kowalski and Kinter executed great rebounding and full court
drives to pull ahead of Newton in the final seconds. Newton free throw failures
and a blown lay-up gave the Spartans the opening they needed down the stretch.
Emporia Gazette reporter Gene Kemper described the action. "Out of the heap
came Kowalski with the ball (after the missed lay-up), dribbling ahead of the
entire field. A Newton player cut him off and (he) attempted to stop abruptly
under the basket to let his opponent by. It was good strategy (but his) foot
slipped. His shot while falling was a dying man's effort, the ball hitting the
edge of the backstop. But no ! In came Kinter following the play. He grabbed
that rebound like a cat pounces on a mouse and in the same motion he sent the
ball to the backstop." Kinter's goal came with three seconds left on the
clock. 3

Emporia's Coach
Alfred Smith was the father of Naismith HOFer Dean Smith - he was also famous as
the Coach who encouraged Paul Terry, a Negro, to come out for the varsity
basketball team. Terry was used as a valuable defensive player and sixth man. He
was the first African-American to play basketball in the Eastern Kansas
Conference that included Topeka, Lawrence, Manhattan and Ottawa. 4 Coach Dean
Smith stated in his auto-biography A Coach's Life that his father was
told that Emporia would not be allowed to enter the tournament if Paul Terry
played. Coach Smith decided to leave the player at home. 5
(See
below for further information)

Hutchinson
was an invited team like Emporia with a Negro on the roster and they did bring
him to the tournament. Ralph Brady was a starter for the Salt Hawks who had lost
six weeks of the season while recuperating from an appendectomy. When he
returned late in the year, he gave a boost to the team that was already the
second best team in the Ark Valley. 6

John Schrant moved to center when regular center Foy came down with influenza
shortly before the tournament start. Schrant and Brady provided the late surge
that defeated KC-Wyandotte in the quarter-final. 7
This win was the biggest
upset of the tourney and Coach Cairns was praised for springing a zone
defense to counter the post play of Wyandotte star Joe Michaels. 8

Wichita East was able to squeak by Hutchinson in overtime, but they could not
uphold the banner of the Ark Valley in the final against Emporia. The Spartans
took the early lead and never lost the scoring advantage. Doty, Kinter and
Anderson were the scorers that kept the Aces at bay. 9 Gene Kemper enjoyed
poking the needle at the Ark Valley. "This team (Emporia) has yards of guts
where some others have inches." He snorted at the idea that Emporia was the
upset champion. "A team that won 22 of 25 games is no dark horse."10
The
win by Emporia gave the northeast area of Kansas three consecutive first place
finishes.

Class B tournament play returned to the Sterling College site used in 1932. Game
reports of the early games that could be found give little more than scoring
reviews but, in that regard, the play of Jimmy Schwartz was the highlight of the
tourney. His thirteen points per game was a very high average in 1934. 11
Cherokee gave the Knights a scare in the finals, but Schwartz came through again
with six of his ten points scored in the final quarter. 12

BLACK PLAYERS AT THE 1934
TOURNAMENT:

Coach Smith says in his book , A Coaches Life, that tournament officials
would not allow Emporia to enter the tournament if Paul Terry played. He goes on
to say that many assumed that Terry went with the team because he was listed in
the team roster that was published in the paper and was honored at the school
banquet after the season. 13

It is known that at least three black players
participated in the 1934 tourney. Review is listed below.

1. Cecil Scroggins SALINA. He
participated in 1933 and 1934. Scroggins was the starting guard for the Maroons
who finished second in the Consolation Bracket. He earned a spot
on the KSHSAA Honor Roll. 14 He would later star in
several sports for Kansas Wesleyan in Salina.15

2. Dwaine White ABILENE. He was a starting
guard and an All-CKL player in 1934. 16 He played in both Abilene tourney games
as a starter.

3. Ralph Brady HUTCHINSON. He
was a starter and played in the first three games of the tournament. He did not
play in the third place game. That may appear suspicious and
suggest that officials had some involvement with his play,
but it can be explained that he gave up his spot to a senior (Foy) who had been
unable to play the earlier games due to
illness. 17 He did play in the 3rd place game in 1935.
18 He would go on to star as a football player for Washburn University. He
experienced discrimination there because
Missouri Valley Conference opponent Oklahoma A & M
refused to take the field against a team that played a Negro. Washburn would
have to leave him off the squad for that
game. 19

It is probable that Coach Dean Smith was only relaying stories that had been
told to him about his father's tourney championship as he was only three years
old at the time. There is no doubt that Alfred Smith faced opposition from
segments of the Emporia population and from conference officials in regard to
his playing Paul Terry. It is also probable that he was receiving pressure to
not risk embarrassment by letting Terry travel with the team and then face some
form of hostile opposition or other prejudice. Paul Terry is a member of the
Emporia High School Hall of Fame. 20\

RULE CHANGES: 1) A
player could re-enter a game twice. 21
2) The experiment with a free throw shoot-off after the first overtime ended
with this season. Instead, if tied after the first overtime period, the second
overtime was a sudden-death, first two points wins affair. 22

The usual Ark Valley titans, Newton and
Winfield, were mentioned by many as the favorites for the Class A title. There
was plenty of support for KC-Wyandotte and even Arkansas City had some backing
from the experts in Topeka. Yet there was a school from Southeast Kansas that
had traveled through the 1934-35 season without a loss and with very few close
contests. Almost everyone had heard the tales of Chanute's magnificent 15 year
old Ralph Miller. The son of the school's Principal was setting scoring records,
but the sports writers questioned the strength of schedule of SEKL teams. 1

Ralph Miller
reached his full height of 6' 2" as a sophomore. 2
Any
question locals had about the super star status of Miller was dismissed in his
first varsity game played against Frontenac. Miller scored thirty-five points in
the game by canning sixteen field goals and three free throws. 3
Area opponents
knew that Chanute was far from the category of a "one-man team".
Gerald and Harold
Unsell, Hugh Jones and Ken Caldwell were capable scorers when Miller was double
teamed and they were adept at getting the ball to the Blue Comet star. 4

The Cadets of Hays were the first team at the tourney to experience the Chanute
onslaught. Miller pumped in twenty-seven points in this opening
round game - a feat unheard of in state competition. He was slightly injured in
the first half and the Hays Catholics actually held a 23-17 lead at halftime.
Then Miller returned in the 3rd quarter scoring ten points and followed with
thirteen in the 4th quarter. The Topeka crowd cheered wildly for the fast
breaking Chanute team and marveled at Miller's ability to score from all areas
of the court. 5

Second round opponent Arkansas City provided Chanute their toughest challenge in
the meet. They gave Miller plenty of attention limiting him to only four field
goals in the game. But in the end it was Miller who defeated the Ark City boys
with trips to the foul line late in the game and a tip-in out of a mad scramble
beneath the goal. The action during this portion of the game was so
intense that an Arkansas City fan was stricken with fatal heart failure. 6

Hutchinson eliminated Topeka High in a hard fought defensive struggle with a 4th
quarter rally despite the shrieking of most of the 4,200 fans cheering for the
home team. 7 Ralph Brady, Marvin Sollenberger and John Kline were fine players,
but Miller's work in the post prevented their advance to the finals. Miller
scored thirteen points in the semi-final and was able to find his teammates for
easy set-ups when the defense attempted to collapse on him. 8

The final against Winfield left spectators, including several College coaches,
amazed by what they saw from the Blue Comet star and team. Miller set a
tournament record of eighty-five points. The Lawrence Journal World
stated, "Players in championship games are not supposed to score
twenty-eight points but that is what Miller did and ... most observers were
satisfied that he could have scored more if he had not passed to teammates when
he was in a better position to shoot at goal himself." 9

Coach Ollie Thomas spoke for many when he responded to the question "How
good is this boy Miller ?" He told the Winfield Daily Courier, "I
never saw DeBernardi ... in high school but I have seen Ralph Miller and his
work in the state tournament was the best I ever saw by a high school athlete.
He comes down the floor like lightning on a fast break and he is the only player
who has ever weaved through our defense and hit goal after goal." 10 An
unnamed school official commented in the paper about scheduling games with
Chanute so "we could get that boy Miller" into Winfield and show the town
folks what they had witnessed in Topeka. 11

Two teams that had played three times in the season squared off in the Class B
final played at Memorial Hall in Salina. Sharon used post man Alfred Rohlman's
towering advantage to control the center tip nearly unchallenged throughout the
tourney. Oxford's big man Elmer McCann helped his team gain the final with hope
that the Sumner County squad could repeat their earlier upset of Sharon in the
Wellington regional. Sharon regained their previous form against Oxford with a
41-24 victory. 12